The Illegitimacy of Violence, the Violence of Legitimacy

What is violence? Who gets to define it? Does it have a place in the pursuit of liberation? These age-old questions have returned to the fore during the Occupy movement. But this discussion never takes place on a level playing field; while some delegitimize violence, the language of legitimacy itself paves the way for the authorities to employ it. In response to the recent backlash against diversity of tactics, we explain why we consider this an important principle for anyone invested anticapitalist resistance.